Hi Myrna, I have just ordered the D.B. Hart translation of the New Testament. I look forward to it.
You probably know that Martin Luther Kind quoted Paul in one of his most famous speeches – “Be not conformed to the ways of this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”. I always took it to mean that where you find injustice and racism that have been accepted by ‘the world’, you should strive for a personal transformation that impels you to oppose it, and not to just live with it. As such it doesn’t much address the ‘intellect’ as such, but it does tell people that critical distance from their own cultural programming is possible, and necessary for opposing various kinds of existing evils.

I have not heard about Carrere until I read Limonov, which is creative non fiction book. A few months later I read the review about “Kingdom” in which Carrere was explaining his journey from an atheist to an admirer of St. Paul etc.

Nor did I havfe any notion of the contention among biblical scholars that there were several “Pauls” assigned authorship of all the Epistles. Why and how would we know that, since we studied or were taught from the canonical NT? Now that the cat is out of that bag, It’s difficult to unknow something that one now knows.

Paul did say that, but with a couple of more words, i.e. “burn with passion,” and not just “burn,” as in a lake of fire. I consulted the www of universal knowledge and here is one editorial on what Paul actually meant: “When we take the passage in context, we see Paul is saying that, even though singleness is his preference, it is not wrong to marry. In fact, for those with strong sexual urges, it is better to marry than to be consumed by unfulfilled desire.” So you and your young groom were right.

Thanks, George. And more books have arrived since. But I’m not sure that a journey into understanding the “authentic Paul” is the same as a journey into self-knowledge. I’ll find out in writing up Part Two.

Well Lynda, have you finished reading the new NY? Is it David Bentley Hart’s translation? If so, then he sorts out the authentic Pauline texts from those that later interpreted or even distorted his “message,” which indeed were utterly liberating. He has been called a “radical visionary” precisely because he had a vision of the human capacity and desire for love.

Tell me more, Miki. This Emmanuel Carrerre how did you come to read him as an atheist? I can understand your reading about Limonov but about The Kingdom?

Thanks for this, Stephen. It is so interesting to me that I am not at all familiar with any of the sages you reference as having produced the commentaries you were directed to as a Baptist (tell me more! would I find some further enlightenment there?) But I am certainly familiar with Falwell et al. Did you keep up with the anti-Pauline literature when it was produced esp by feminists, Christians and atheists and goddess-worshippers alike? (Well, I’m not sure that the latter could be bothered.) And I’d like to know more about those “Christian history” courses that opened up the “nuance and fluidity” of the NT to you. How could anyone “hate” Paul who has read Galatians, as you say?

I was “introduced” to Paul (Saul) by Emmanuel Carrerre ,a novelist, journalist, film director and I would say a philosopher. His book “The Kingdom” was an eye opener for me an atheist. It is ” an expansive and ingenious investigation of faith, the founding of the church, and the ongoing quest to find a place within it”.

It chronologies Paul’s evangelizing journeys around Mediterranean; I was intrigued by the examination of three theological virtues Faith, Hope and Charity and also his (Emmanuel’s) reexamination of New Testament.

I am very much looking forward to the next part of your blog to learn more.

P.S. I encounter Careere by reading his fantastic book “Limonov”